Adriana Poli Bortone

Adriana Poli Bortone (born 25 August 1943) is an Italian politician who was a member of the European Parliament from 1999 to 2008. She represented Southern Italy. She has been mayor of Lecce from 1998 to 2007 and again since 2024.

Biography
Born in Lecce, she became Assistant lecturer in Latin literature at the University of Lecce in 1965. In 1985 she became an associate professor in the same subject. From 1967 to 1998, she was member of Lecce Municipal Council and from 1981 to 1990 National secretary for women of the Italian Social Movement. From 1990 to 2000, she also was member of the national executive of MSI and subsequently of National Alliance. Poli Bortone was elected for the first time to the Chamber of Deputies in 1983 and in 1994 she was appointed for a month Vice President of the Chamber. In 1994 she also served as Agriculture Minister in the Berlusconi I Cabinet. In 1998 she was elected mayor of Lecce, and she was re-confirmed in 2002.

In the 1999 European Parliament election, Poli Bortone was elected MEP with AN, while in the 2008 general election she was elected to the Senate with The People of Freedom. In 2009 she left the PdL to found her party, named I the South. In the 2013 general election she was candidate for the Senate in Apulia with Great South, but she wasn't re-elected. In 2014, Poli Bortone joined Brothers of Italy, but she left the party in 2015, when Forza Italia nominated her for the regional election in Apulia, while FdI decided to support the candidacy of Francesco Schittulli. Finally, she gained the 14% of the votes and she wasn't even elected in the Regional Council. Subsequently, on 29 February 2016, she declared to join Forza Italia.

In 2019, Poli Bortone left Forza Italia and joined the neo-fascist party Tricolour Flame. In 2022 she switched to Italexit, a Eurosceptic party led by journalist Gianluigi Paragone.